User Articles

Senate rebukes Trump’s tariffs

The Senate has passed a resolution that would thwart President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada, delivering a rare rebuke to the president just hours after he unveiled sweeping plans to clamp down on international trade. The Senate resolution, passed by a 51-48 vote tally with four Republicans and all Democrats in support, would end Trump’s emergency declaration that underpins tariffs on Canada. Trump earlier announced orders – his so-called “Liberation Day” – to impose import taxes on a slew of international trading partners, though Canadian imports for now were spared from new taxes.

Argentina

Milei draws fire over Falklands War speech

Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei has marked the anniversary of his nation’s failed 1982 attempt to forcibly wrest the Falkland Islands from Britain by expressing hope that the island’s residents may one day choose to be Argentine rather than British. Milei’s speech came as a surprise to many in Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over the British-controlled archipelago that it calls Las Malvinas despite the British victory. His comments were criticised as overly conciliatory by political rivals who argue that the island’s residents have no right to self-determination because they are not an Indigenous people.

Health

6 hours ago

Shingles vax aids dementia fight

A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one – shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains. A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20 per cent. The research, published in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age – and what we can do about it.

6 hours ago

Disaster

10 hours ago

Myanmar junta declares ceasefire for quake aid

Myanmar’s ruling military has declared a temporary ceasefire in the country’s civil to facilitate relief efforts following a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 3000 people. The surprise announcement by military leaders who also head the unelected government came on state television MRTV, which said the halt in fighting would run until April 22 to show compassion for people affected by Friday’s quake.

10 hours ago

Greenland

Danish PM backs Greenland against Trump

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has travelled to Greenland for a three-day trip aimed at building trust and cooperation with Greenlandic officials at a time when the Trump administration is seeking control of the vast Arctic territory. Frederiksen announced plans for her visit after US Vice President JD Vance visited a US air base in Greenland last week and accused Denmark of under-investing in the territory. Greenland is a mineral-rich, strategically critical island that is becoming more accessible. Trump has said that the landmass is critical to US security. It’s geographically part of North America, but is a semi-autonomous territory belonging to the Kingdom of Denmark.

Middle East

Israel cranks up heat on Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory. The announcement came after Netanyahu’s defence minister said that Israel would seize large areas of Gaza and add them to its so-called security zones. A wave of Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed more than 40 Palestinians, including several women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.

History

15 hours ago

MI5 spills its secrets

A desiccated 110-year-old lemon that played a key role in espionage history is one of the star attractions at a London exhibition drawn from the files of MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency. Compact spy cameras, microdots in a talcum powder...

15 hours ago

Protest

18 hours ago

Protests in Turkey take new turn

Protests that erupted across Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor took a new direction as government opponents called for a one-day shopping boycott. The boycott, which was launched by student groups, called for consumers not...

18 hours ago

Diplomacy

22 hours ago

Lammy shows support for Kosovo-Serbia talks

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has given assurances of Britain’s interest in the Western Balkan region while visiting Kosovo, urging both Kosovo and Serbia to make progress in normalisation talks. Lammy was on the second day of a visit to Kosovo where he met its senior officials, calling on Pristina to form a new Cabinet quickly following the country’s February 9 parliamentary election. Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s Self-Determination Movement Party, or Vetevendosje!, won 48 seats in the 120-seat parliament, falling short of a majority.

22 hours ago

Disaster

23 hours ago

Man rescued from quake rubble

Rescuers in Myanmar have pulled a man out alive from the rubble of the hotel where he worked, but most teams were finding only bodies five days after a massive earthquake hit the country. After using an endiscopic camera to pinpoint Naing Lin Tun’s location in the rubble and confirm that he was alive, the man was gingerly pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was trapped in the hotel where he worked. Shirtless and covered in dust, Naing Lin Tun, 26, appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported that the rescue in the city of Naypyitaw was carried out by a Turkish and local team and took more than nine hours.

23 hours ago

Iceland

Volcano roars back to life

A volcano in southwestern Iceland has again belched lava and smoke into the air, just hours after authorities evacuated the few remaining residents of a nearby fishing village. The eruption began at 9:45am local time, triggering warning sirens in the town of Grindavik where webcams showed molten rock spewing toward the community. It had subsided by late afternoon, though the volcano was still active, Iceland’s Met Office said.

Argentina

Is life better in Argentina? Depends who you ask

Argentina’s poverty rate dropped to 38.1 per cent in libertarian President Javier Milei’s first year in office, a closely watched measure reflecting the government’s progress wrestling down what had been among the world’s highest inflation rates. The decline in poverty for the second half of 2024 – from July to December – marks an improvement from the 41.7 per cent that Milei’s left-wing populist predecessors delivered for the second half of 2023. Milei swept to office late that year with a mandate to reverse the country’s economic decline brought about by years of reckless borrowing. “These figures reflect the failure of past policies, which plunged millions of Argentines into precarious conditions,“ Milei’s office said as the government statistics agency, known as INDEC, released its report. “The path of economic freedom and fiscal responsibility is the way to reduce poverty in the long term.“

Politics

Senator delivers 25-hour speech

In a feat of determination, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker has held the Senate floor with a marathon speech, setting a historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions. Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able”. More than 24 hours later on Tuesday evening, the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, was still going. It set the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history, though Booker was assisted by fellow Democrats who gave him a break from speaking by asking him questions on the Senate floor.

Weather

No power keeps Michigan on ice

The tip of Michigan’s mitten has struggled through another day without electricity as restless residents try to stay warm while utilities scramble to restore power in a region waylaid by weekend freezing rain that brought down countless trees and poles. Schools in several counties were closed again at the top of the Lower Peninsula. Sheriff’s deputies armed with chain saws cleared roads and were even delivering oxygen for the homebound. Drivers idled their vehicles in gas station lines that were blocks long.

Explainer

Who is Senator Cory Booker?

Senator Cory Booker, who held the Senate floor with a marathon 25-hour speech in which he railed against President Donald Trump’s Republican agenda, once found common ground with the president during his first term. Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2020, expressed frustration bordering on exasperation at a host of Trump issues in his long Senate speech – from the possibility of annexing Greenland and Canada to slashing social programs and cutting taxes. Booker’s speech, occasionally interrupted by Democratic colleagues to whom he yielded for questions while catching his breath, came as Democrats are in the minority in the Senate and the House. It’s unclear what effect Booker’s speech could have, but it reflects one of the levers available to out-of-power parties.

Accident

Truck hits pedestrians in Boston

A box truck has crashed into a building in Boston’s Chinatown neighbourhood, hitting several pedestrians before flipping onto its side in what authorities say appears to have been an accident. “At least at this preliminary juncture, we don’t have any reason to believe that this was an intentional act,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said at a news conference.

Disaster

Window to find survivors is closing

Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar’s capital, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed more than 2700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war. The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.

France

Ready or not, Bardella inherits far-right spotlight

He wears his suits like armour, smiles like a pop star and boasts more than 2 million followers on TikTok. At just 29, Jordan Bardella has become the fresh-faced figurehead of France’s National Rally party and is now poised to inherit one of the...